SHORT NOTICES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 112, 14 May 1927, Page 21

SHORT NOTICES

"A Handful of Nuls," by the late Rev. Samuel Morris (London, H. B. Allcnson), ia a collection of helpful talks to boys and girls, by one who had the gift of sympathy with the young. Known as "Uncle Oliver,'' through the medium of "The New Zealand Baptist," Mr. Morris used to contribute to a monthly children's column with the single end in view: helping them to develop a into good men and women. Parents and teachers will find this collection of nuts most useful as .an aid to the formation of the characters of children upon Christian lines. "A Lucky Lad," by Jean Kenyon Mackenzie (London, Martin Hopkinson), is the life-story of the Bcv. Bobert Mackenzie, D.D., father of the writer, and at ono time one of the best known divines in America. His chief pastorales were in New York and San Francisco. As a poor boy from the Western Highlands of Scotland, Dr. Mackenzie had very hard but very happy times. Ho sailed for America, penniless, but full of hope, in the 'sixties, landing at Windsor, Nova Scotia. More hardships he underwent before taking ship for Boston., He did all sorts of jobs, working in a box factory, travelling for a directory, but ever he kept in view his ambition: to become a minister, and a minister he became. Miss Mackenzie has a very happy style of writing, and the faculty of making her subject well known to and loved and respected by her readers.

Mr. John Buehan has written a story, "The High Places," which enters upon ground made familiar by Sir Walter Scott. The seventeenth century in Scotland was remarkable 'for a stern Calvinistic discipline and a revival of witchcraft. Mr. Buehan shows how they were linked together, for the sternness of the new creed drove many back to the license of the old paganism. The hero of "High Places" is a minister of the kirk, born out of duo season, who, like the great Montrose, stood for enlightenment and moderation and paid the penalty.